fter what felt like 84 years, the Vancouver Whitecaps were back in action.
Standing in there way was Pacific FC for the second leg of the Canadian Championship semi-finals. Oh yeah, there was a first leg. Pepperridge Farm remembers, it happened on July 10. It has been 48 days between legs. Since then, the Paris Olympics happened, Joe Biden dropped out of the US Presidential race and shockingly, Oasis got back together. All these things have happened since Pacific got their last win, which was July 7 against Atletico Ottawa.
Pacific were looking to pull off a repeat of that magical night at Starlight Stadium in 2021. Vancouver were looking to reach the Canadian Championship final for the third straight year.
Match musings
The Whitecaps did not look rusty. Their ball movement was great and they constantly pressed.
There were some nervy moments at the back that lead to Pacific breakaways. However, Pacific were once again allergic to scoring. If this was an MLS club, we’d be talking differently.
The Whitecaps got their goal courtesy of the Flying Scotsman. In case you haven’t heard, Ryan Gauld got called up for Scotland for the first time in almost a decade. Sam Adekugbe took advantage of some careless Pacific playing out from the back. Emil Gazdov denied Brian White but Gauld wasn’t missing.
Unfortunately, that great half had a black eye. Shortly after Gauld scored, White blocked a Pacific’s defender’s clearance and went down awkwardly. White was down for a bit but had to be taken off as a concussion substitute.
With White likely going to miss some time and Gauld, Andres Cubas, Fafa Picault, Adekugbe and Ali Ahmed going away for international duty in September, the push for top four in the West will seem harder to climb. There is still time to make a free agent signing or two, just saying.
The Whitecaps had a comfortable lead but didn’t want to get too comfortable.
Pacific started turning things on. They looked more dangerous in transition and had more posession of the ball. Luckily, the Whitecaps bent but didn’t break. Despite carrying the ball into the box, Isaac Boehmer stayed alert and made simple saves. They were simple but simple is good.
Vancouver had chances of their own too. Their transitions looked great but the final pass or tough lacked. For instance, Damir Kreilach couldn’t get his foot on Sam Adekugbe’s cross (The latter made an excellent run from his own half to make that happen.) and later missed a clear header on goal.
Nonetheless, the Whitecaps took care of business in this game and the first leg and will play for the Voyageurs Cup for the third straight year. The final will be on September 22 at BC Place against Toronto FC. Twitter will be fun for that one.
Stat of the match
Accurate passes were 90% for the Whitecaps and 75% for Pacific. Vancouver did a good job of forcing Pacific into make mistakes.
What was said
“I think to be honest, the first half was good,” said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini. “Even after the first 10 to 20 minutes, we could’ve scored more…the only two scary moments were from two silly mistakes giving away the ball.”
“In the second half, (Pacific head coach) James (Merriman) made some changes. They get out of the half much more aggressive than in the first half and of course we felt a little bit slow. I think until I made the three changes, they were better than us in those 15 minutes because we weren’t able to get out and they won the ball back. They didn’t have big changes but they were always there…We went to a straight 3-5-2 and with fresh guys in the mid and with Ali (Ahmed) on the wide side and I think we got into the game again. We could have score the second goal even in the second half and I’m satisfied with the performance of the team.”
“They were never going to be easy,” said Gauld. “But we all stayed focused on the whole game and thought we did a good job and got the job done. We’re just excited to get back to the final and to hopefully bring it home.”
“It’s big for my confidence,” said Boehmer on getting a clean sheet. “I’ll celebrate it tonight and but then tomorrow’s a new day. I’ll then look forward to the next game and to do my job and to help the team.”
Sartini also confirmed to the media that Boehmer will start the final against Toronto.
Tweet of the night
Too bad the Whitecaps training facility at UBC doesn’t have a roof. It will be hard to keep the drones out!
Wrap-up
Next season, the two legs need to be a week or two apart. The away goals rule also needs to be scrapped. Many competitions around the world have gotten rid of it.
The Whitecaps are back in league action on Saturday as they have an away game against Austin FC. Kickoff is at 5:30 pm Pacific.